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p--- ? . - ' / , * f ? . ? . % r X * V ? t i . / % ; Wat Samterg $ 1 = > * $2.00 Per Year in Advance. BAMBERG, S. C., THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 1922. Established in 1891. / ???1 ???. ) ? ??^????? - Nat Felder,, * Street Si \ ~ j fcv A most deplorable tragedy occurred in the early hours of Sunday morning last on Bamberg's Main street, in front of the barber shop of ^ ' F. B. Hooks, which resulted in the death a few hours later of Nat Z. Felder, Jr., a wen Known yuuug man | of this city and a member of one of the community's most prominent ^ ' families. T. Curtis Hutto, night policeman, is formally charged with the homicide. i K It has been many years since there ? < has been an incident in Bamberg s$ widely discussed as the Sunday morning tragedy. Mr. Felder was a young man who enjoyed the friendship of a wide circle of friends and v acquaintances who deplore the un timely end he met. The remains were interred Sunday afternoon at the Zeigler burial ground a few miles from Bamberg in the presence of a large concourse of friends and relatives. The funeral service was conducted by Rev. S. O. Cantey. Mr. Felder was a member of the local .Baptist CUUrtu. $ The tragedy occurred between 12:30 and 1:00 o'clock Sunday morning in a pistol duel between Mr. Felder and Mr. Hutto, the latter escaping unhurt. Mr. Felder was car% ried into the barber shop and given first aid by a hastily summoned physician, afterward being taken to Mark's Drug Store. The physician pronounced his condition very critlcal with little hope for his recovery and relatives were summoned to his side. Upon/the arrival of the five o'clock train for Charleston, the injured man was placed on it an attempt to get \ . . *him to a Charleston hospital for an operation with the possible hope of saving his life. As the train neared Br&nchville the physician saw that he was in a -dying condition, and at ] V his, request the train was delayed a few minutes in Branchville, Mr. Pelder breathing his last on the train about 6:00 o'clock Sunday morning. The body was brought (back to Bamv . beng on the same train, reaching x here about 6:30 o'clock. ^Occurred on Street. " As usual on Saturday nights, thfe ^ barber shop had remained open until a late hour. The business in the shop had been concluded and prepa^ rations were being made to close up. ?Mr. Felder and the three barbers, - , P. B. Hooks, J. B. Scarboro, and L. O. Lee, were the only persons in the ? shop at the time. As -Mr. Felder came out, Mr. Hutto was sitting, ac" * cording to the witnesses, on the garbage can in front of the shop. He accused Mr. Felder of haying dis. charged his pistol in the rear of the (barber shop, and demanded a $10 bond for the alleged offense. Mr. Felder, it was testified, demanded to ^ - "know who the officer's informant > was, and an argument ensued, in which both parties are alleged to have used strong language. All the witnesses agreed that Mr. Felder proposed shooting it out, and that Mr. Hutto agreed to the proposition, some of the witnesses saying that he tried to reason it out with Mr. ireiaer Deiore uoing so; mat ~ Mr. Hutto had his gun in his hand, and that Mr. Felder had his hand in ^ his right coat pocket. The shooting beghn suddenly and continued rapidly until some six or eight shots i were fired, the witnesses agreeing that appearances indicated Mr. Felder fired the first shot, though both first shots were very close together. Bullets Enter Stores. $ Two of the bullets fired entered the store of A. Kirsch and the barber shop, respectively; the barber shop door being penetrated and the bullet being stopped against the hot water tank in the rear. The other went through tin show window of Kirsch's store. During the firing both parties appeared to clinch, and fell from the sidewalk to the street; Mr. Hutto l * getting up, and Mr. Felder trying to do so, falling to the sidewalk mortally wounded. Mr. Hutto was placed in the custody of Sheriff Ray, and v at the inquest Sunday afternoon at 3:00 o'clock was formally charged with the homicide by the coroner's jury. Three shots struck Mr. Felder, one between the third and fourth ^ ribs; another between the fourth and fifth ribs, and another striking the 4 left thumb. One bullet came through i * * & % ' * " Jr., Slain on inday by T. War Follows Move ' To Operate Cars Columbia, 'March 20.?When the ?k;? Pniin-gv Has and Electric VyUJLUHiUia lvaiinu;, company today attempted to operate three of its street cars, idle since February 15, because of a strike of motormen and conductors, it resulted in open warfare. Four men, engaged in operating the cars, received minor injuries from two separate attacks on cars and four men, three of them strikers and one a sympathizer of the strikers, were placed under j arrest for assault and battery wit'h; intent to kill, and warrants have f been sworn out for at least three! other strikers, all alleged to have \ been implicated in 4he attacks. j Following a conference in the of-1 fice of Governor Cooper tonight, participated in between the executive, .city and county authorities, and the management of the company, it was decided to put three cars in operation tomorrow under complete police protection. * >> I '"rue puunc can kc&l d so ui cu, said Governor Cooper tonight following the conference, "that the company and the public will be protected in the-company's lawful efforts to operate its cars, even though the entire law enforcement forces or this state, including the National Guard, be necessary to guarantee this protection. The public may be assured that mob rule will not supplant the orderly process of law." The governor further stated that he woulfl not take sides in the industrial dispute, but that he. did intend to see that the company should operate its cars unmolested as it had a legal right to do, particularly as operation had been ordered by the state railroad commission. helnw the neck, and the other lodged i just under the skin under the should- 1 er and was extracted by the physician. Internal. 'hemorrhage was the immediate cause of death. Well Known Citizen. Mr. Felder was the son of Mr. and Mrs. N. Z.' Felder, Sr., of Bamberg, and was 36 years of age. He was born and reared in this community, and had been engaged in various business enterprises in the vicinity. He is survived by his mother and father, and the following brothers and sisters: D. G. Felder, o? Asheville, N. C.; Mrs. W. J. Heflin, of Birmingham, Ala., Mrs. Carrie Boyd, of Spartanburg; Mrs. Clint Hooton, of Denmark; and R. T. Felder and Tom Felder, of Bamberg. Mr. Felder was a brother of Henry Felder, known to his associates as "Punch," who was a member oft the ill-fated crew of the Cyclops, which disappeared so mysteriously during the world war, and of which not the -- - - - - * i I slightest trace nas ever ueeu uiacovered since it left a South American port for America; the presumption being that it was either blown up by the Germans or sank in the Atlantic from other causes. The Testimony. The following is the testimony of the coroner's inquest, conducted, in the illness of Coroner Zeigler, by Magistrate E. Dickinson, E. L. Price, Sr., transcribing the evidence: J. B. Scarboro, duly sworn, said: "As we closed Hutto was sitting on garbage can?Mr. Lee and myself first. When Mr. Fe!d?r got to sidewalk, Hutto asked Felder for $10 bond. Felder asked for what, and | reply, for shooting in rear oarDer shop. "Felder says, 'lock me up.' Hutto says, 'No.' Felder says, 'I am not afraid of you,' and Hutto answered that he was not afraid of Felder. After considerable cursing between the two, Mr. Hutto took his gun from his pocket and told Felder that he didn't want to hurt him, but if j he had to he would. Felder drew his j gun and both commenced firing.! Think Felder shot first, but both first shots were almost together." F. B. Hooks, duly sworn, said: "As Nat and I came from door, Hutto requested $10 bond. After some argument Hutto got up; Nat facing Hutto and advancing. Hutto pushed him back and said he did (not) want any trouble. "Nat proposed to shoot it out and! (Continued on page 6, column 3.) Main Curtis Hutto I Reformed Burt Attempt on i (Reprinted from the January issue of. The National Brain Power by special permission.) For more than two years what has been termed a "Crime Wave" has been flooding the country. Banks, held up in daylight by organized bandits, have lost millions. Transportation companies have suffered as great. Even the mails have been looted of stupendous sums. We read of these robberies almost daily, but we seldom read of the capture and punishment of the robbers. Wlhy? What has caused the "Crime Wave?' "War and unemployment" is the invariable answer from the police, the newspapers and the people, generally. But is this the right answer? To the editor of the Brain Power recently a most interesting individual: A reformed bank burglar wfto had been pardoned by the governors of three states, and by the president of the United States. In the past he had stolen millions of dollars from o V, 11 r? rl roH hij n Ire W fk wac in JUOOri xj a, auuuiuu -.-w terested in our magazine, and told a most a*mazing story of the brainpower of the cracksman pitted against the brain-power of the safebuilder. He was asked if he would put his remarks into writing. Ho stated that he was no writer?but he agreed to make the attempt* Here is his story, almost word for word as he wrote it. In a style so readable that it might be evinced by many authors, he has told the story of the bank robber from the days of the old key-lock safe until the recent achievement that has caused three times as many day light -hold-ups of banks as there were night-time robberies in the past. There was a heavy sense of excitement at Baltimore's police headquarters one night during the* winter of 1916. A raiding squad waited for the word "Gb." It was to be a big night, one that would cover the police department with glory and the morning newspapers with headlines. Early in the ^vpninor a deDartment "stool-pigeon" had sent in the tip that a gang of bank burglars were in the city to talk things over. When the meeting was in full swing a signal was flashed to headquarters. In a bac? room of a saloon, fifteen of the cleverest bank robbers of the country were in session?for bank robbing is as much of a business as banking or advertising. The police swept in and took them all, without a scrap, for the cops were carrying drawn guns and the burglars were genuinely surprised. That was in Baltimore in 1916. In Toledo, in 1921, a police squad left .headquarters to make another raid. Shrewd detective work had gained information as to the whereoVirmta nf a p-aner that had looted the post office of $1,000,000. But this tim^the cops didn't go to the hack room of a saloon for their men. They turned up one of the best residential streets in the city and found them in an apartment house known to be the residence of people of wealth and culture. These contrasting incidents show at a glance what has happened in the Underworld; how, in the past/ five years, it has literally stepped from the gutter to the middle of the best sidewalk the community provides. "Hold-up men," says a recent statement issued by the American Bankers' Association, "obtained approximately $1,250,000 from the banks of the country during 1920." A statement by the National Surety Company shows that the burglary losses paid by big insurance companies in the United States in 1920 was $10,189,853. Never in the history of American crime have there been such stupendous hold-ups as were committed in the past two years against the United States mails. Glance at the figures represented by these three mail' hold-ups: Pullman, Illinois $ 200,000 \ Dr. S. P. R Neck E qlar Tells of Denmark Bank Dearbon, Illionis ? 275,000 Toledo, Ohio 1,000,000 The great Wall Street bond thefts or iyzu, totalling $o,uuu,uuu, are sun fresh in the memory, and none of us will ever forget the almost daily holdups in our largest cities which have been terrorizing our bankers and merchants for more than two years. A recent hold-up of a mail truck on the most prominent street of our largest metropolis netted the bandits $2,000,000. What has caused this unparalleled wave of banditry? That is what I propose to show in this article. I preface pay story with these, huge figures so that the reader may get a mental picture of the seriousness of the recent crime wave that has swept this great American country from coast to coast during the last two years. The whole world is changing, but in no class of sicety has there been such a'decided change as marks the upward course of the criminal. The new Underworld is bursting with prosperity. As 1 go along I shall point out the things that have caused this crime wave, how the Underworld has evolved, and the parts played by prohibition, the reformer, the banksafe maker, and every factor that has contributed to the making of the new Underworld, with its new criminal with his new methods and his new woman. During the past six months I have talked wibh at least one hundred detectives in New York, Boston, Chicago and Detroit about the crime wave of bank hold-ups. I was aston' ished beyond expression to learn that not a single one of these bloodhounds of the law had the slightest conception of the fundamental unrierlvine causes of the bandits' sud den plundering of banks. Like newspaper and magazine editors, business men and citizens, they all echo "War and unemployment." War and unemployment have created a lot of petty-larceny thieves, sneak thieves, pickpockets and footpads, but never bank burglars or bank hold-up men. The bank holdup man is not an over-night creation. He is the product, as I sjiall point out, of an evolutionary process that has been functioning for forty years or more. . In the days of Mark Shinburn, George White, Jimmy Hope and Big Frank 'McCoy the burglarizing of banks was largely a matter of getting key impressions, mastering lock combinations, and, where force was required, drills ajid ^un-powder. Were these aristocrats of the years gone by to return today to apply theif oldtime ideas to the present modern bank with the screw-door safe and ' * - - 1 1- ? H~ automatic time-iocK. vemno, would starve to death. For fifty years there has gone on in this country a battle of wits between the safe' maker and the safe burglar. Most of the time the burglar ihas worn the victor's laurels. For thirty of these years, his career was a succession of successes, blasting to smithereens every invention of the safe builder, outthinking him, outwitting him, anticipating him. Think of the ingenuity, the resourcefulness, the cunning?the brain power, in fact?of the burglar who competed for thirty years, and predominated over the best safe-making brains in the country. It has been a tremendously interesting battle, with a multitude of sensational sidelights, and many safe burglars have given their lives in this competitive conflict. I have known many of them who have had arms and legs blown away during their experiments with dynamite and nitro-glycerine. Many were blown entirely to pieces. There have been sacrifices to endeavor in the Underworld as well in the upper. Langdon Moore was the prince of American bank burglars from 1850 to 1880. Fifty per cent, of the safes that he robbed were old key-lockers that were fashioned as simply as the door to your house. Moore was so successful in getting key impressions \entz Meets L bofaen by Ov Robbery of Stores ! Brings Fatal Result | Trenton, March 20.?J. C. Moore, i alleged safecracker and escaped convict from the Georgia penitentiary, where he was serving a sentence of 20 years, was shot and killed early I this morning by Ernest Crouch whije the former was in the act of opening a safe in the store of Mathis & Whitlock here, and L. K. Rawls, of Columbia, alleged to have been an accomplice in the robbery, was later apprehended on the highway to Aiken and has been lodged in the Edgefield jail. Mr. Crouch has rooms above the ^tore and was awakened by a noise in the store underneath. Takihg 'his gun, he went out and Moore emerged from the store with a pistol and a flashlight. Mr. Crouch fired twice, the first load of buckshot taking effect in the left leg. The second shot proved fatal, Moore falling dead with the flashlight gripped in one hand and a pistol in the other. The safe in the store was ready for blowing, the dial having been pried out, soap spread over the load ond the fuse attached. Prior to entrance into the Mathis & Whitlock store, tne store or <j. w. Wise had been entered and the safe blown open. A knife and $50 were | taken from the ^"ise store. The knife I was found on Rawls. . i * Residents, awakened by the shots, j gathered hurriedly and G. W. Wise, j L. C. Edison, Lewis Harrison, Hilton i Duncan and J. D. Mathis, Jr., follow{ ed the track of the automobile in : which a second man disappeared when Moore was shot. A heavy rain had fallen about midnight and the track was easily followed. Near j Aiken and about daylight the posse ' came upon Rawls, his car -having ; stuck and negroes were assisting him . in his efforts to extricate the car. fWhen arrested Rawls was armed | with a large pistol and had on his J person a knife later identified as | having been taken from the Wise - A AAA J ^ + Am O TIT A I store, $ ? u duu Ck lctici 11 vui c* ?v v man asking that he desist from doing certain things. Rawls claimed that he was from Augusta and denied any knowledge of the robbery at Trenton. A conductor on one of the Southern trains through here says he saw Rawls and Moore in Columbia Sunday afternoon and in Batesburg Sunday night. | While in Wise's store time was taken to eat some apples. Moore had in his pockets a jar of fuses and also a map of the surrounding country. Mrs. Moore came tovTrenton from Columbia and identified Moore. She said Moore and Rawls left Columbia together. She did not ask for the body, which will be buried by the county authorities. Until a few months ago Rawls is I said to have operated a store in ! Batesburg, and since that time to I have been making his home in Co ' lumbia. that the safe-makers decided it was time they devoted their energies to the designing of a safe that locked otherwise than with a key. The result of Moore's battle of wits with them produced what"was then known as the "front-lock" safe, in which the lock and combination were placed behind the first sheeting in the door. Moore then resorted to drills and gun-powder. He was the first safe j burglar to use explosives. Again the safe maker was beaten by the burglar. About 1885 the safe maker came out with the back-lock safe, the combination lock and tumblers being located behind the last sheeting in the door. The burglar easily mastered j this by having his drills made longer. J Once more the safe-maker was de- j feated. Bank robbing then became j so common that the bankers and sare : I builders lay awake nights wondering i how the ingenuity of the burglar i could be combated. The burglar1 was having a comparatively easy time. The matter of getting into a j bank offered not much more resist-1 t ance than getting into a can of toma-! toes. But the safe makers were not' asleep. Out of every defeat they | met at the hands of the burglars j (Continued on page 4, column 1.) # \ N ~)eath; erturned Car | Coming as a climax to a week of tragedies in Bamberg county was the sad news Tuesday afternoon of the death of Dr. S. P. Rentz, who met an untimely end on the Hunter's Chapel 1 road as he was returning home from v Vi oiifnm aKiIa ! .Del Hi UCIg W lieII 1115 1 ui u autuiuuuAiu overturned in a ditch by the roadside WJSk about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. When the news first reached Bamberg, it was thought Dr. Rentz had been pinned under his car in several feet of water and drowned, but examination by hastily summoned physicians revealed the fact/that hie neck ihad been broken and death was, therefore, instantaneous. Dr. Rentz was in Bamberg about 2 o'clock in the afternoon and left here going to his home, perhaps making some professional calls on his way, as was his custom in his extensive practice. Supervisor W. B. Smoak, his son and a salesman were in an automobile a short distance behind Dr. Rentz, and were witnesses to the ?ad tragedy. As Dr. Rentz'g car reached a point about one mile north of Hunter's Chapel Baptist ?-/->Vinr-nVi Yfi? Qmnci L- 'o nartv ca W thfi VUU1 VU) 'AUi KJ yw.* WM ?? WMbw machine go into the ditch and turn completely over. They hurried to the J spot and attempted to remove the car and extricate Dr. Rentz, but it was found that the three men were unable to get it out and help had' to be secured. Jj Some twenty minutes had elapsed before the car was lifted out, and the limp form of the beloved physician removed. In Che meantime one of the party had been dispatched to Bamberg for physicians, and Drs. A. S. Weekley and H. J. Stuckey made a record run thinking that perhaps his life mieht be saved from drowning, . J but the examination showed that drowning was not the cause of death, but a broken neck. The body had been caught in some way under the car when it overturned. No 'other . bruises were found on the body, and ^ the lungs were not filled with water. ? The body was removed to the doctor's home a short distance beyond, and the funeral and interment occurred at Zion Methodist church nearby. Ornan lodge, No. 38, A. F. M., was in Charge of the burial, Dr. Rentz being a most faithful and devoted member of this lodge, of which he was the treasurer for many years. In addition to his connection with the Masonic lodge, Dr. Rentz was a member of the Scottish Rite, the Knights Templar an>d the Shriners, all of which he took a deep interest in. Simon Peter Rentz was born 54 years ago a short distance from hfil late home, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Rentz, who preceded him to the ' grave last year, his mother being I buried one year ago from the date nf his Heath He received his boy /hood schooling in the neighborhood, and then entered the South Carolina | Medical college, Charleston, comi pleting his professional education at the University of Maryland, Baltij more. On completing his medical training, Dr. Rentz located in Cottageville, where he was physician for | the Horse Shoe Mining company, a thriving industry at that time. After ! remaining in Cottageville for four or five years, he decided to return to his old home for the practice of his profession, and since that time has lived at Hunter's Chapel. He was married to Miss Hattie Rhoad, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. N. B. Rhoad, of Hunter's Chapel, the former of whom survives him. Two / children survive him, Horace and 7~?" D f or XI clip JUL tug ivx iuvi A voauxuq with (his parents and the latter residing a short distance from the old home place. The following brothers and sisters survive him: C. W. Rentz, Sr., Bamberg; D. P. Rentz, Lakeland, Fla.; Mrs. J. L. Herndon, Hunter's Chapel; Mrs. Docia Blocker, Charleston; Mrs. E. F. McMillan, Hahira, Ga.; Mrs. Annie E. Jones, Numatilla, Fla, and Mrs. Frances Folk, Bamberg. Not a person in Bamberg will be more sorely missed from his community than Dr. Rentz. Electing to serve ibis own people in his professional career, he had t deeply entrenched himself in the hearts of his constituents. His disposition was one of geniality, and the occasion was rare indeed that he did not have " .1 (Continued on page 6, column 4.)